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Street Triple 765 at large

After months of hiding in a tree, one of MCN’s spy photographers has finally managed to grab a series of decent images of the all-new Triumph Street Triple 765 as it was undergoes final road testing.

The prototype bike was spied on the road outside Triumph’s research and development facility in Spain, and this is the first time we have been able to see a near-finished bike in pin-sharp detail at close range.

The images are the final proof that the new Street Triple will be getting a larger-capacity engine along with a host of other changes to bring the ever-popular British roadster bang up-to-date.

The existence of an imminently arriving new Street Triple has been a pretty open secret for the best part of a year since news of the bike being shown to customer focus groups leaked out. From those meetings we discovered the bike was going to be called the Street Triple 765, which signifies that the engine will be getting around an extra 90cc of capacity from its three cylinders.

And the most significant single change to this bike is the new engine, which is visibly very different from the existing 675cc motor – which produces around 100bhp. We estimate the new engine will produce closer to 110bhp for standard models and 120bhp in the higher-spec models thanks to the extra capacity which is likely to be the result of both a slightly wider bore and a longer stroke. The advantages of increasing capacity in this way is that the engine doesn’t lose the nicely rounded road manners that has made the Street Triple 675 such a hit since it was first introduced in 2007.

Other changes to the bike include a new swingarm, updated brakes (on this bike, believed to be the R model, that means Brembo radial- mounted monobloc calipers) and we can see the same twin lights and central ram air scoop as used on the 2016 Speed Triple 1050.

While Triumph always decline to comment on spy shots, there is little doubt that this new Street Triple will arrive in early 2017 in three or four guises, with leaked research data suggesting the range will be priced between £8000 for the base model rising to around £10,000 for the R version pictured here. MCN expects that Triumph will officially unveil the range in late 2016, or very early 2017, and it will arrive in dealers by Spring.

Exhaust

While this bike is close to being finished, it’s still a prototype undergoing a lot of testing. Clearly the exhaust end can serves little purpose in terms of silencing or keeping emissions under control as it’s missing completely, but will be present by the time the bike is ready for production, and is expected to be very similar to the current model’s.

Styling changes

There are myriad changes to the bike which has brought both the design right-up-to-date but also more in line with the larger Speed Triple model which was refreshed for 2016. Smaller side panels, new radiator caps, a new bellypan and updates to the numberplate holder and rear indicators have given the bike a new style.

Engine

The current Street Triple is loved by new and experienced riders alike thanks to its combination of fun, character and the thrilling sound from the inline three-cylinder motor. Triumph will be keeping this in mind with the new engine which, while we don’t know the exact changes, has almost certainly undergone some serious surgery. While the crankcase appears the same, the cylinder head is clearly different, and we expect both the bore and stroke have been increased to achieve the larger capacity without simply increasing the stroke, which would result in a more lazy engine characteristic.

Ram air intake

The central ram air intake is mounted between and above the front lights and appears to be exactly the same technical solution as that seen on the new-for-2016 Speed Triple S and R models. The ram air scoop maintains a straight line through a headstock-mounted cutaway to keep the flow of air into the airbox as clean and direct as possible.

Brakes

This is the Speed Triple 765 R version and that’s why this model has high-spec Brembo radially-mounted calipers up front. This level of braking hardware is not expected to be present on the lower-spec models, which we believe will get Nissin calipers.

Swingarm

While the main chassis and subframe remain visually unchanged from the current bike, the swingarm is a new, more heavily braced design and is almost certainly a requirement of the extra power the larger capacity engine will produce.